Answers

Q:

If God is a loving God, how can He send anyone to hell? It seems to me that He ought to let everyone into heaven if He truly loves us. I honestly hope it's like that, because I haven't been a very good person (I'm in prison right now), and I don't like thinking about hell.

A:

Let me ask you a question: Who is responsible for putting you into prison? You might be tempted to answer, “the judge put me here”–and that’s true, up to a point.

But is that the whole story? No, of course not. Yes, the judge passed sentence on you–but you were the one who broke the law. In other words, the one who is responsible for sending you to prison–is you! If you hadn’t broken the law, you never would have been arrested and brought to trial, and you never would have been sentenced to prison. But you did break the law–and now you’re suffering the consequences.

The same is true with us and God. God doesn’t send us to hell; He is only the judge. Instead, we send ourselves, because we are the ones who are guilty of breaking God’s law. And when we reject God and His way of salvation, we alone are responsible for the consequences. The Bible says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18).

God loves you; He loves you so much that He was willing to send His only Son into the world to die for you. Don’t let another day go by without Christ, but by faith open your heart to Him and experience the joy of knowing you belong to Him forever.